I made my donation on Nov. 14th, and after many emails, most which where never answered, and many phone calls, unknown number of hours on hold, and at least half dozen promises of call backs (none received). I was told last month that mine would be shipped in March. Today I was told by the 1800 operator that it would not be shipped until late April. I fully expect to find out next month that my XO will not be shipped until June. I am feeling more and more like a sucker.

acevedo, I'm just an average G1G1 and not affiliated in any other way. I did get my first XO as expected and it works great. Today I shipped it to a friend who bought it for his child. I'm very happy to have been a part of this.

You are having a lot of bad luck with this, but you are not a sucker. You are someone who has done a very good thing and this sort of thing comes back to you, I believe. I hear you that you *feel* like a sucker, but I encourage you to think about the child who is using the other laptop and whose life has lit up some because of it. There has been a streak of bad luck resulting in your not getting your laptop yet. It has nothing to do with your having made a bad decision, aka "being a sucker." There have been mistakes made, but not by you, in my opinion. Isn't it fantastic that this project got off the ground and is doing so much good already. That may be worth the sacrifice some people are making. And I imagine some people are making some pretty big sacrifices in terms of working on this project. I hope this comes across as encouragement and not as an argument. You have to feel a heap of frustration with all the failed communication. I think that has been the biggest fault with this project and something that not enough planning was put into. The waiting would sit a lot better if one had the feeling of being heard.

acevedo wrote:I made my donation on Nov. 14th, ... Today I was told by the 1800 operator that it would not be shipped until late April.

oh, man. i really didn't need to read this. wtf? how can this program _still_ be so screwed up? at best the person on the 800 line you spoke with is clueless (no big risk in thinking that might be the case), but even that's inexcusable at this point.

It sounds like you spoke to someone who is a bit out of touch. Every indication I've seen shows me things are running on time. Just be sure your order information is absolutely correct, and you will have no problems.

Why don't they just shut down donor services, I have yet to hear them helping anyone... shift the pay over to the folks at help@, or do something to make help@ the primary support line. It has been amply proven I think that is where the helpful and interested people are.

Well, I have been reviewing all of my emails to and from OLPC (both help and support), and discovered that I have not received a reply from a real person since January. Even when I did get a response from a human, they would invariably ask for some additional information, which I would provide and then never hear from them again. So now I feel like a bigger sucker than before.

While I do not question the sincerity of the volunteers working for OLPC, I am increasingly convinced that many of the decisions being made by the leadership of OLPC were made to feed their ego. For example, why did they start taking donations from Canada, when they were still were having significant problems taking care of the US donations? Could it have been that they were more concerned with showing the cash on the books, rather than the effectiveness of service delivery?

Agree 100%. Wanna really feel suckered? Check over at the OLPC News Forum, some in Canada are getting emails telling them their XOs are on the way when in actuality their laptops were delivered weeks and weeks ago. What gives with this?

The more I think about the G1G1 shipping fiasco, the more I see the a parallel between OLPC and FEMA. Specifically that there are many dedicated and hardworking staff/volunteers trying to deal with mess created by poorly created logistics system, as well as a leadership team that loved to make promises but was clueless about making sure the organization could execute.

acevedo wrote:The more I think about the G1G1 shipping fiasco, the more I see the a parallel between OLPC and FEMA. Specifically that there are many dedicated and hardworking staff/volunteers trying to deal with mess created by poorly created logistics system, as well as a leadership team that loved to make promises but was clueless about making sure the organization could execute.

Checked out. It is a bit mind boggling, but then, if you know donor services, it doesn't come as a suprise. As long as people get their XO's I don't care what they do. I can't wait to get over this donor services hump(much like the rest of you ).

@InfamyI have been reading your posts here and previously on Wayan's site since you began posting and I appreciate what you have been doing.

That said however, I am concerned when you use words like "hump" as something that you'll be glad to get over. This shipping situation has certainly been more than a "hump" as I know you are well aware.

To watch even now the confusion in donor services is nothing short of mind-boggling.

With Mr. Negroponte admitting his shortcomings in Businessweek yesterday, one wonders not only if the 17,000 of us who were said to be left waiting for the next shipment, but more critically whether OLPC will survive.

Please don't take this amiss, but while I know you are trying, I'd think twice about being an apologist for OLPC. You might find this is a very lonely position to be in.

I hope that I am wrong and that the rest of the XOs from G1G1 get delivered and that OLPC can be restructured and come out of its troubles, and yes, that you are rewarded for your efforts here by being proven right, that we won't be left empty handed. But like many others who have come to post here and at Wayan's site, hope is fading.